trials

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of trial.

   The court scheduled several trials for the coming month.

   Clinical trials of the new drug ran for nearly two years.

   Note

   One spelling carries every testing sense of the noun: clinical trials of a new drug, trials of a product or procedure, the trials in which athletes or animals compete for a place on a team, and the pieces of ware set in a kiln to gauge its heat. In the UK it also names the internal examinations Eton College sets. The same form doubles as the present-tense verb, and only the sentence around it tells them apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of trial.

   The company trials each prototype before mass production begins.

   She trials new recipes on her family every weekend.

   Note

   The verb shares its spelling with the plural noun, and grammar is what separates them. Here the word is transitive and needs a direct object. A firm trials a prototype or a procedure before launch, and a club trials a new player. Its range is narrower than the noun's. It always means putting something, or someone, to the test before committing to it.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2